


out of time

by chibyeol (minitala)



Category: Fallout 4, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Amnesia, Bakugou Katsuki Swears A Lot, M/M, Pre-Relationship, bc u kno, its fallout, nuclear war is mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:06:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28168197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minitala/pseuds/chibyeol
Summary: Todoroki Shouto wakes two hundred years later in a world devastated by nuclear war with no memory of who he is and how he got there. A note left in his name tells him to "Find her," the woman he assumes is his mother, and sets off in a journey to find answers to his many questions in post-apocalyptic Musutafu.Along the way, he meets some colorful characters amidst mutated creatures. One of them, a perpetually angry and foul-mouthed blonde named Bakugou Katsuki, seems to be with him on this for the long haul.
Relationships: (implied dabihawks), (mentioned izuocha), Bakugou Katsuki/Todoroki Shouto
Comments: 4
Kudos: 23
Collections: 2TOP Secret Santa 2020





	out of time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SaltySeagull](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaltySeagull/gifts).



> ohmygod hi!!! this fic is my secret santa gift for [SaltySeagull](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaltySeagull/pseuds/SaltySeagull) and my first fic in months so i'm not entirely sure about the quality salkdja;slkdja i promise i'll write you a better one soon!!
> 
> to my giftee, i got soooo excited when i read your prompt bc it is absolutely up my alley! so i really tried to make it work in other game universes (thought of kingsglaive baku and royal todo, maybe keyblade wielders tdbkdk...) but my ideas were either too broad or not very tdbk. im so sorry!! i actually ended up playing fallout4 during quarantine while i was languishing over what i should write and i ended up with this hahaha. i hope you still like it anyway!! merry christmas and i wish you so much happiness and blessings for 2021! thank you for giving me the chance to write this fic~
> 
> anyway, fic will not follow fo4 canon strictly but the setting and the premise of being the sole survivor will be pretty much the same!

He opens his eyes and sees darkness. No, there is light, vague and distant, until his vision clears. It’s not a light but a round window. His breath fogs up the glass. It’s cold, wherever he is right now, enclosed too, restricting his movement. The walls seem to narrow and constrict against him and he starts to panic, banging fists into the metal walls.

A steaming hiss sounds outside the pod and the pressure releases as the glass window lifts. He is thrown out of the contraption and released into what seems like an unfinished recess into the earth, half caved in, half covered with metal walls and flooring. The pod he came out of gives off cold steam from the open chamber. Was he… frozen inside?

The pod is beeping hysterically, he realized belatedly as the obnoxious sound continues hurting his head, until it tweaks down and dies off. Along with it, the light flooding the chamber dies out, soothing his mounting headache. As soon darkness takes over, emergency lights come on, softer and weaker, illuminating the bright red sign indicating an exit.

There are so many questions, so many blanks in his memory but he can’t know anything if he stays here. Grabbing onto the side of the pod, he pulls himself up. A clinking sound catches his attention and his hands instinctively grab what seems to be dogtags in his person. The emergency lights catch on the details engraved on the metal.

Well at least, that’s one answer to his many questions.

_UA-1A15-004_

_TODOROKI SHOUTO_

_JAN 11, 2056_

-

-

There are no more answers inside the sprawling metal complex, only giant cockroaches and more questions. Robots torn apart and powered down are scattered in the hallways. _Protectrons,_ his mind supplies unhelpfully. In a tiny room with a sealed door and a way out, an unmoving white-haired human with springs and gears for a body is collapsed against an open terminal with a log bearing his name.

_Shouto—_

_I won’t last much longer, I can’t risk opening the Vault doors again to scavenge materials for repairs._

_Take my Pip-Boy._

_When you are free, go home, Tatuin is just southeast of here, across the creek. You have to find them. I can’t believe what they did to Touya. You have to fix this, Shou. Find them. Find her. He took her. Don’t be fooled. He is oauerknefoie;kejraeroefja fasofjaspof_

Shouto cannot even make sense of whatever’s written inside but he understands what a Pip-Boy is and takes the personal computing device from the mechanical hand it is attached to. The sealed door requires a password he cannot seem to find a clue for in the mess of the room but there is an unlocked door leading to a way into what looks like another heavy duty door and an elevator up.

He’d been underground all along.

And when he surfaces the world looks like nothing he knew.

-

-

“What the—”

“Halt, intruder! This is the personal residence of—Young Master Shouto!”

“...Yes. That’s me. Young Master Shouto. I think. Do I know you?”

“Oh Young Sir, of course you know me! I am the personal nanny of this household! Why I’ve served not only you but aslkalsdhlajhfjkadfhkjdlsdksl—”

“Uh. Hello?”

“Halt, intruder! This is the—”

“I am Young Master Shouto.”

“Young Master Shouto! It really is you! Young Sir, truly it’s been so long–two hundred years to be exact–but you have not aged a day!”

“Sorry, did you just say, two hundred years?”

“Why yes, two hundred years since the bombs fell over southern Musutafu in Alderan and you were alksjdlasjdlasjlkasjfkldjf—”

“...really.”

“Halt, intruder! This—”

“It’s me. You know me, don’t you?”

“Young Sir! You have returned! My, you have grown into a fine young man!”

“...this is going to be a long day.”

-

-

“Are… you sure about this?” Shouto asks uncertainly as they approach the obviously abandoned and growing increasingly dilapidated town. His mind conjures up images of Takoba, memories he is unaware he has, but they are nothing like this town he is seeing now.

Nothing in his broken memories looks like the world outside now.

“Positive, Young Master Shouto,” the Miss Nanny robot he found in Tatuin tells him. _Momo,_ he reminds himself.

The robot had answered many of the questions he’s had since exiting the Vault, the ones she can answer without resetting randomly anyway. The bombs fell that day in October, _two hundred years ago,_ an event he only has vague memories of—heat, light, panic, and urgency. Pain. The world has been changed since then, turned into a violent, unpredictable, dangerous wasteland, filled with mutated creatures, lawless raiders, and unscrupulous mercenaries.

Momo had been able to play a holotape of his parents at least. Father had been in near hysterics that day while he and Mother argued. The holotape with Father forcefully dragging Mother out, taking both of them from their home, leaving Momo behind, but neither had been in the vault he woke up in.

He has vague memories of Father, a stern, looming, angry man, and Mother, gentle, comforting, and soft-spoken. _He took her,_ the note said. The only reason Mother could not have been in the Vault is because Father took her away. That must be it. Momo is doubtful but nevertheless agrees to help him look for answers and suggested looking into Takoba, the town outside of Tatuin.

“I already told you Momo, please call me Shouto,” he says softly, hand tightly gripping the rifle Momo had provided him with. He found himself surprised with how accurate his shots are even without the aid of the Pip-Boy’s V.A.T.S., but Momo is less than impressed, seeing as he had _apparently_ been a better shot two hundred years ago. But when he asks what could have been his job two centuries ago for him to be a good shot, the robot just ended up resetting herself again.

In the present, Momo huffs from the burner exhaust that keeps her afloat. “Well now, Young Sir, that would not be proper!”

Shouto chuckles to himself but before he can say anything else, his ears pick up the sound of distant gunfire.

“Hostilities detected, Master Shouto,” Momo beeps beside him, “May I suggest we return another day?”

He thinks it over before he shakes his head. “No, some people might need our help. Let’s go assist them if we can.”

Momo’s exhaust gives out a sound that can only be described as a sigh. “Your esteemed Mother and Father did raise you to be a hero, I suppose.”

-

-

“You! Don’t move any closer!”

“We are here to help, Sir! Young Master Shouto is a capable fighter!”

“Young Master—you know what, whatever. Pick up that minigun, we’re gonna need it.”

“Katsukiiii!! They’ve started firing again!”

“Shit! If you’re here to help start by taking out these damn raiders, we’re in the third floor gallery. Kaminari you dumb ass, bolt the door!”

“Well the young man seems rude despite the offer of help. May I suggest we return another day?”

“No, we can't just leave them. Let’s go, Momo.”

-

-

There were, as it turns out, settlers holed up in the ruined Takoba Museum being harassed by raiders. Shouto and Momo make quick work of the raiders outside before fighting their way through the Museum to reach the refugees—and their lone defender.

“Don’t know who you are man, but your timing’s just right!” a blonde haired man claps him in the back as soon as he enters the locked room.

“Ah, yes,” Shouto says sheepishly, shying away from the sudden physical contact and the attention, “I was passing by.”

“Lay off him Kaminari,” a gruff voice interrupts, before a laser musket is aimed at his face, “And you, no one _just_ passes by. What are you up to, half-and-half?”

Shouto turns towards the voice and, beyond the barrel of the musket, is met with spiky blonde hair and a pair of vivid crimson eyes, paired with a sneer that would have been threatening in a lesser face. Momo immediately surges at his side, flamer armed and ready. “How dare you raise a weapon against the Young Master!” she beeps angrily, “I will have you know that we are on a very important quest!”

“ _Quest?_ ” the spiky blonde guffaws, “What is this? One of Kaminari’s shitty holotape games with pretty boy here as the main character?”

“Why I would never—!”

“Momo,” Shouto calls out, gesturing for her to stand down. The robot grumpily floats back behind him dutifully and Shouto turns back to the blonde with a frown. He knocks away the gun from his face with a careless hand.

“Oi, half-and-half bastard!”

Shouto glares at him. “My name,” he seethes out, “Is Todoroki Shouto. I’m looking for Mother when I happened to find you trapped in here and decided to help.”

The blonde sneers back at him but thankfully doesn’t aim right at his face again. “So what, is this some kind of Gunner you help me, I help you gig you got going on? Because no thanks, I can handle this on my own.”

“No, you can’t,” Kaminari speaks up from somewhere to the side.

“Say that again, dunce face—!” the blonde roars at him before his tirade is cut off all of a sudden. There is a small girl with long white hair clinging to the blonde’s forearm, unmindful of his rudeness and aggression. She shakes her head at him and Shouto thinks the world may have shifted a little because the spiky blonde actually _smiles gently_ at her. The moment is shattered in the next instant when he turns back to Shouto with a scowl.

“If Eri says you’re okay then I guess I’ll just have to trust her,” the blonde huffs, “But if you’re gonna help us then I don’t want anything half-assed alright?”

Shouto turns from him to the girl still holding to the blonde’s arm. She smiles at him encouragingly and Shouto finds himself reflexively smiling back. “You could at least tell me your name, before we start working together,” he says, addressing the blonde again.

The blonde rolls his eyes. “Minuteman Bakugou Katsuki and you better damn well remember it, half-and-half,” he introduces, sticking a hand out for a shake.

“Minuteman?” Shouto asks curiously as he shakes Bakugou’s hand.

Bakugou frowns at him. “You’re not from around here, aren’t ya?”

“...You could say that.”

“Master Shouto here has been cryogenically frozen for the past 200 years with no memory of his past!” Momo pipes up helpfully from behind him.

“No way!” Kaminari exclaims, “You were actually a popsicle?!”

A barrage of gunshots interrupts the quiet that had settled over the Museum and whatever Shouto was planning to answer Kaminari’s accusation.

“Storytime can wait until later dunce face!” Bakugou roars, gently pushing Eri away towards the other settlers. He turns back to Shouto, “Well, are you just gonna stand there?!”

-

-

“So... you really don’t remember _anything_ at all?”

“I remember flashes but nothing concrete.”

“Bits and pieces but not the big picture, gotcha, gotcha. Why can’t your Miss Nanny just tell you what you don’t know?”

“Why don't you try asking her.”

"Hey Momo! Who is Todoroki Shouto?"

"That's Miss Momo to you, Mr. Kaminari. As for your question, why, Young Master Shouto is of course the son of alskdjaljdlkasjdlasjdaks—"

“...Okay.”

"Halt, intruder! You are encroaching upon the personal space of a Miss Nanny robot, namely myself, I would advise you stand 5 feet away from me or there will be violence."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!"

"Momo, it's me, Shouto. Stand down."

"Why, Young Master Shouto, you have indeed returned! If it is your command, then of course, I shall obey!"

“Holy shit! So no answers there, huh? Instead you’re out here looking for… your mom?”

He nods. “If there’s anyone who has answers, it would probably be Mother.”

“How do you know she’s not like… you know?”

“Dead? Why else would that robot in the Vault tell me to find her otherwise?”

“Robot?! You mean to tell me the guy who left you the note was a _synth?!”_

“Synth?”

“Synthetic humans! Damn, for your sake, I hope the Institute isn’t involved because _they_ were just supposed to be horror stories.”

“The… Institute?”

“The Institute! The Musutafu Boogeyman! The thief in the night! The monster under your bed!”

“They’re not real then?”

“Oh they’re real alright. _Everyone_ knows the Institute steals people in the night and replaces them with synths and the families are none the wiser! Oh my god Todoroki, you’re not a synth are you?!”

“Shut the hell up Kaminari, you’re gonna wake the others up! And _you!_ Don’t you dare start believing all this Institute nonsense and go the fuck to sleep!”

-

-

Bakugou finds him by the fire and sits gruffly down across from him. They’re silent for a long while as they watch the dying fire crackle and burn before Bakugou finally speaks up, “Listen here halfie, no one knows anything about the Institute, stop feeding dunce face’s paranoia. Living out here in Musutafu is hard enough as it is.”

“Understood,” Shouto nods at him, “But?”

“What do you mean but.”

“I don’t know,” Shouto shrugs a bit impishly, “You tell me.”

Bakugou actually laughs at that. “You’re a perceptive bastard aren’t you, half-and-half?”

“According to my Pip-Boy, Perception is one of my highest S.P.E.C.I.A.L. traits.”

“No shit?” Bakugou laughs again, “You sure ya really ain’t some synth?”

Shouto frowns at him. “I still bleed and eat like you guys.”

“That’s nothin’,” Bakugou huffs, rolling his eyes, “Synths used to look pretty obviously mechanical at first, but then the Institute started rolling out these lifelike models, who have skin, blood and all that shit. And we wouldn’t have known if not for that damn shooting incident in Naboo some years back.”

“What happened?”

“Some guy started acting really wonky and eventually began shooting people down at this bar he was in. Naboo security was quick to act and shot him down before he could kill too many people, only it turned out that beneath all that blood and muscles were gears and springs. The Institute became Musutafu’s boogeyman soon after that.”

“You seem to know a lot about them,” Shouto points out.

“I only know what everybody knows which is to say, not a fucking lot,” Bakugou pauses to frown at him before sighing heavily, “But I know someone who definitely knows more than anybody else.”

Shouto sits up straighter at that. “You do? Where do I find them?”

“Don’t get your panties in a twist hotshot, I’m taking you to see him.”

“You’re coming with me?”

“You help me, I help you. Ain’t that right? Now that you’ve led us here in Tatuin, everyone can start rebuilding something they might be able to call home. Kaminari can handle the rest from here with your Miss Nanny's help. He may be a dunce but he’s reliable when you need him to be and that robot should keep him in line.”

Shouto smiles, “Alright, where to then, Minuteman Bakugou?”

“Where else?” Bakugou grins at him, “We’re headed to the Jewel of Musutafu, Naboo City.”

-

-

_Attention: This is Scribe Camie. Our squad is currently cornered by feral ghouls in Hosu Police Station. Running low on supplies and ammunition. Anybody in the vicinity, we are requesting for urgent aid. This message is set to repeat. Attention: This is Scribe Camie. Our squad—_

“Bakugou.”

“No.”

“But they need help.”

“Absolutely not, shitty popsicle, you don’t just trust anyone in this fucking wasteland.”

“But what if they're telling the truth? Aren’t Minutemen supposed to help? You know, _helping others in a minute,_ wasn’t that what you told me?”

“UGH! FINE! But if we end up dead it’s all your fucking fault!”

-

-

Inasa leads the way towards the Yadu Systems facility which reportedly contains the radio relay circuit board Camie needs to set-up her transmission tower. His Power Armor is bulky and noisy, so unlike Shouto's preferred steathier approach, but it easily deals with wild mongrels and other hostiles along the way.

Shouto chances a glance beside him and—yep. Bakugou is still mad at him.

“Well. We’re not dead aren’t we?” Shouto points out at his partner.

“No you fucking dumbass, you just lead us to someone far far worse,” Bakugou growls at him, low enough to be out of earshot from Inasa shooting at bloatflies some distance away.

“They’re not so bad,” Shouto argues, “They let us resupply at the police station.”

“This is the Brotherhood of Steel fucking half-and-half!! Don’t act dumb, you know what they’re—” Bakugou trails off, “You have no idea what I’m talking about don’t you.”

“They seem like nice people,” Shouto says petulantly.

“Oh for the love of—!”

“OI! DON’T FALL BEHIND RECRUITS! YADU SYSTEMS IS JUST THIS WAY!” Inasa shouts at what Shouto has long realized to just be his normal speaking voice.

Bakugou flips him the bird. “I’M NOT YOUR FUCKING RECRUIT YOU WALKING STEEL CAN!!”

“Bakugou!”

-

-

With Hosu and the accidental discovery of a super mutant lair behind them (which Bakugou berated him no less than an entire day for, only to begrudgingly acknowledge his stealth kill of the leader at the end), the duo proceeded further south to enter Naboo’s territory.

They’re at the river near the border, sheltered from ambush in an abandoned apartment building. Beyond the water and the steel bridge spanning it, the lights of Naboo stand in stark contrast against the yellow radiation storm that rolled in earlier that evening, prompting them to find shelter rather than proceed further.

Shouto closes the shutters as another bolt of radioactive lightning slashes across the sky and sits down near the fireplace Bakugou managed to get going. He is handed a bowl of vegetable soup Bakugou managed to make from crops they scavenged earlier and the pair eat in silence.

The storm continues to rage outside and Shouto flinches as the geiger counter on his Pip-Boy slowly increases with each lightning flash.

“There’s all sorts of docs in Naboo who can flush out the rads from your body,” Bakugou pipes up, seemingly apropos of nothing.

Shouto blinks at him. “You’re just…” he starts and hesitates to which he receives another glare from Bakugou for.

“Spit it out, half-and-half.”

Shouto pouts at him. “It’s just. All of you I’ve met, you’re all used to this life.”

“What, killer radiation storms, wild animals that can murder you, monsters who eat humans, and humans who act like they aren’t?” Bakugou snorts. Shouto shifts uncomfortably making Bakugou roll his eyes. “Life before the war ain’t so hard, wasn’t it?”

“I wouldn’t know, I don’t remember what it was like.”

“Shit. Sorry, halfie.”

Shouto sighs. “My name is Shouto.”

“I heard you the first time half-and-half.”

It was Shouto’s turn to roll his eyes and the pair lapse into a tight silence, broken only by the still raging storm outside. Eventually, Bakugou gives a ragged exhale and says, “Look, if it’s any consolation, you managed to get this far in this goddamned hellhole despite having no memories whatsoever.”

Shouto blinks and raises his head only to meet Bakugou’s intense gaze head on. “Do I have to spell it out for you halfie?” he continues with a scowl, “Only the strong survive in this world, what does it matter who you were or where you’re from as long as you live another day.”

"Does that mean you think you're strong too?"

"I'm tough to kill," Bakugou tsks, "Besides, who'll protect all these people when I die, with the Minutemen all but died out? Not fucking Denki."

"I would," Shouto says quietly. Bakugou raises an eyebrow at him but doesn't say anything else. Shouto continues, "I got you and you got me, right? If I don't find Mother or find out who I am... guess it won't be so bad being a Minuteman."

Bakugou snorts, carefully trimming down their fire as the night goes on and radstorm slowly ends outside. "We'll find her," he says softly in the end.

Shouto blinks at that before a rare wide and genuine smile takes over his face, “...thank you, Bakugou.”

“It’s Katsuki. Only my enemies call me Bakugou.”

“I—”

“Go to sleep half-and-half.”

“Good night, Katsuki.”

-

-

“Oh come on, Aoyama-kun! I live here! You can’t just lock me out!”

“ _Non,_ Izuku-kun, Mayor Chisaki left very specific orders that you are to be kept out. The things you wrote about him in your newspaper—your imagination truly!”

“Well if he's so mad maybe it's because he's guilty don't you think!!"

“...Deku?”

“Kacchan!!”

“Kacchan?”

“Don’t ask, half-and-half.”

“Kacchan!! You made a friend!!! I’m so proud!!!”

“What the _fuck,_ of course I make friends Shittyku!”

“I’m… what’s going on here?”

“This is the guy I told you about, the one who stalks the Institute like it wouldn’t kill him one day.”

“Someone has to be in the pursuit of truth Kacchan! The Institute will stop being this scary thing once we all know what it really is.”

“And where’s that got you, huh? Trapped outside the city you live in? Goddamnit Deku, I specifically left you and Cheeks here so you wouldn’t get into trouble, and that’s exactly what you’re doing!!!”

A rumbling noise interrupts the argument. The steel roll-up gates that open into Naboo City reveal a stern short-haired young woman, holding up a blonde man by the throat.

“ _Mou,_ Izuku! What will you do without—Kacchan!!”

“Hey, Cheeks. Can’t keep a leash on your boyfriend?”

“I’m not a dog!”

“He does what he wants I suppose. Oh hey, who’s the Prince Charming?”

“I’m. Uh.”

“Ochaco, _mon cher,_ I cannot breathe—”

“Oops! Sorry! Well, just remember that next time you lock my fiancee out, Aoyama-kun. Now, you! Welcome to Naboo City!”

-

-

“So that’s how it is,” Izuku— _not_ Deku—says when Shouto finished telling what he knows, descending into a murmuring fest soon after.

Katsuki sighs. “He gets like that sometimes. Oi! Shittyku!”

There’s a gentle hand on his arm and he turns to meet Ochaco’s bright eyes. “I’m sorry this happened to you,” she says softly, squeezing her grip on him a little before letting go. Shouto catches her hand. “Thank you,” he tells her.

“Ow, ow, ow Kacchan!! I’m sorry!” Izuku complains while Katsuki has him in a headlock on the other side of the table. “But I’m not even sure if this is Institute business!”

“What?”

“Well,” Izuku starts, clearing his throat, “People go missing all the time in Musutafu you know? It’s not always the Institute. Plus their usual modus would be replacing someone with a synth so you _don’t_ know that they’re missing. That doesn’t seem to be the case here.”

“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?” Ochaco asks.

“Yes and no,” Izuku answers, shaking his head, “No one knows anything much about the Institute, not even me and I’ve been hounding them for years. So it's good if we don’t have to go down that road. But if it isn’t the Institute, then that means it’s something else. Something more real and that’s more dangerous than Musutafu’s boogeyman.”

“It doesn’t matter who it is, I will find Mother one way or another,” Shouto insists tersely.

Ochaco smiles at him. “You will, Shouto-kun, and I think there might be someone here in the city who can help you.”

-

-

“He’s not here.”

“What do you mean, _he’s not here,_ this is the Hawks Detective Agency isn’t it?”

“Well, the boss hasn’t returned from his latest case investigation since a week ago.”

“Isn’t that normal for private investigators?”

“It is, especially if the detective is Hawks but for him not to contact the office is wildly out of normal for him.”

“Just. Ugh. Just tell us where he last went.”

“Here, this was his latest case, the Himiko Toga disappearance. He was pretty confident he could have found her easily too, saying all ‘Tokoyami-kun, you better prepare a feast when I come back’ but I guess he can be wrong too.”

“Thanks, we’ll take it from here.”

-

-

“Yo! Don’t know who you are but thanks for stopping by!” Beyond the thick glass of the locked Overseer’s office, a blonde man in a greaser jacket waves cheerfully.

“Why do I get the feeling you always get told that,” Katsuki grumbles beside him as he steps closer to the window.

“Are you… Detective Hawks?”

“The one and only!” he says with a grin, showing the back of his jacket with a beautifully done and roughed up print of a pair of red wings. “Now how about you gentlemen get me outta here before the other baddies show up, hm?”

-

-

“So... what you’re saying is, you freed and finished up a case for me, because you want to hire me for another case? Oh man.”

“Can you help us or not, birdbrain?”

“Hey now! Don’t be rude! But alright, since you _did_ save my life, I guess I do owe you one. Hm. Well, based on what you’ve told me, the answers might have been with you guys all along!”

“ _What?_ This isn’t some shitty children’s movie!”

“Wait… you mean—”

“Yep! See blondie, you gotta keep up some more with pretty boy over here.”

“Call me that again and we’ll see who’s gotta keep up jerk!”

“Katsuki…”

“Ugh! Fine! What is it then? What’s the answer all along, huh?”

“If I’m right… what Detective Hawks wants to access is my memories.”

“Bingo~”

“And how are we supposed to do that smartass?”

“I agree with Katsuki on this one, I’ve been trying since I woke up to figure out what I can remember but there’s really just... nothing.”

“Ah-ah, you realize this is two hundred years after you’ve been frozen in a can, don’t you? The world… isn’t so kind to living things anymore, especially humans. Sometimes all they want is to relive the happy moments they used to have.”

“Is there someplace here in Musutafu here that can do that?”

“Yes. But few people would ever brave going that far just for some momentary high.”

“Wait a minute—”

“I don’t care, if it exists then I want to try.”

“I know you do but I think your little gremlin boyfriend here isn’t as thrilled.”

“What!”

“No, I—”

“He’s not—”

“I’m not—”

“He’s not my boyfriend!” “He’s not my boyfriend!”

“...Right. Regardless, spiky here wouldn’t like that place.”

“Why, where is it?”

“Well. Kamino.”

“Oh hell _no."_

“But Katsuki!”

“Fine but you better damn watch your own ass there because I ain’t gonna be doing it!”

“You sure you don’t look at his ass? ‘Cause it’s your loss spiky.”

“I’LL BLOW YOUR FACE OFF YOU FUCKING BIRDBRAIN!”

-

-

“This is the Memory Lounger,” Dr. Nemuri Kayama explains, “I’m gonna put you into a trance with an anesthetic gas and after that, we can explore your memories, the strongest ones will be the those that can be easily drawn out.”

“Even if I don’t remember them?” Shouto asks doubtfully.

“Yes,” Dr. Kayama assures him, “The memories are there, we just have to… _encourage_ your brain to reach out to them.”

“I—” Shouto gives out a sigh, “Alright. I’ll do it.”

"Wait, will this have no side effects?" Katsuki interrupts from behind him.

Dr. Kayama rolls her eyes. "Of course there _might_ be side effects but that's pretty normal when you're working with a living brain. Especially one you have to dig deep in."

"...Will this change who I am?" Shouto asks softly.

"What do you mean?"

"When I regain my memories, will this me right now, the one who woke up since in that Vault, will he disappear?"

"I—" Dr. Kayama pauses thoughtfully, "I'm sorry, I'm not in the position to really say. This procedure is unheard of after all."

“We can find another way,” Katsuki pipes up. Shouto turns toward him with a brittle smile. “No,” he says, shaking his head, “This is my first chance to know who I am and what happened to me, I _want_ to do this.”

Katsuki frowns at him but backs down nonetheless. Dr. Kayama claps a gentle hand on Shouto’s shoulder, “Alright then, when you’re ready, just wear the mask that’s on the table to the side and sit down in the Lounger.”

Shouto takes the gas mask and fits it over his mouth and nose. Dr. Kayama checks if there are any leaks before moving towards her computer. The cover of the Lounger goes down to float just above him and for a second, he is transported to that time he had woken up in the cryogenic pod. By now, it seems so long ago, and so many things have happened.

His eyes find Katsuki’s worried ones from beyond the glass cover of the Lounger. His hand reaches out without even realizing it. Katsuki is instantly by his side grasping his hand in his own, eyes never leaving his.

“Alright, Shouto-kun, just take deep breaths and let the relaxants work.”

Shouto does as he’s told but his eyes are on Katsuki as his vision starts to blur. The last thing he registers before falling into the abyss of his memories is the tightening of Katsuki’s grip on his hand and the quiet murmur of, “I’m here, Shouto.”

-

-

-

_"War. War never changes."_

_Mother murmurs as they look upon Touya frozen inside his pod, a gentle hand caressing the thick glass separating the woman from the child. The white haired boy looked troubled and small as he slept within his icy chamber, body almost entirely encased in bandages. An older brother, the eldest, he had been told, someone he had never known to have existed before now._

_It was not the first of the uncovered secrets of the day, almost pales in comparison to the revelation that his S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes had been assigned to him before birth, and the only one of his siblings to come out of it successful. They conducted the tests just this morning, his seventh birthday._

_"The world needs a hero, Shouto," Mother continued in her soft voice, pulling him along to the next pod, containing a girl, sleeping without a crease to her brows. "That's why your father and I agreed to donate ourselves to UA for the cause."_

_“This is Fuyumi,” she introduced next, gesturing to the sleeping girl in the cryogenic pod, her skin pristine and free of the bandages that seemed to have bound Touya, “She… reached the desired aptitude only in three traits, unlike Touya. But by then we had already learned from Touya and didn’t make her go experimental training to improve her aptitude scores after her S.P.E.C.I.A.L. test.”_

_Shouto shifts uncomfortably, the possibility of himself being in a pod terrifies him. That would have been him, had his scores this morning been subpar. He eyes the tall teenager standing beside Mother. “You,” he murmurs uncertainly, “You are my brother, too?”_

_Mother smiles. “This is Natsuo,” she says, “He was a surprise, weren’t you, dear?”_

_The boy–Natsuo–snorts. “Curious about why I’m not in the freezer, wonderboy?”_

_Shouto blushes at being caught, fiddles with the pocket of Mother’s UA-standard issue lab coat as he tries to hide behind her legs._

_Natsuo scowls. “Look at him, he’s just a kid,” he gripes at Mother, “Are we absolutely sure we should hand him over to Enji?”_

_“Natsu!” Mother reprimands gently, “He’s still your father!” She turns to Shouto with a smile. "You were not the first, my sweet Shouto," Mother tells him, “But you are the first to be perfect. Father would be proud.”_

_There are stars in Shouto’s eyes as he asks Mother, “Will I meet him, too?” Natsuo rolls his eyes, “Unfortunately.”_

_Before Mother can scold Natsuo for being disrespectful again, the doors to the cryogenic chamber opens and a booming voice echoes across the metal walls of UA’s Vault 1-A._

_“Rei, is that him?” Todoroki Enji asks, fierce blue eyes sweeping across Shouto’s small form, “Come with me then, your training starts now.”_

-

-

_“Stand up,” Father commands harshly, “You can do better than that.”_

_Shouto wipes the blood that drips from his split lip as he glares at Todoroki Enji. The man he has come to know as Father is harsh, strict, and unforgiving._

_He stands up and tries again._

_He is ten years old. He is tired._

-

-

_“We have to go. Now.”_

_“We can’t go to the Vault. It must be locked down to protect the others.”_

_“And him? You don’t want to protect him?” Father asks Mother angrily, pointing carelessly to where Shouto is standing beside Momo._

_“Of course I do, but there has to be another way. We can’t risk opening the Vault. Enji, please—”_

_“Nonsense!” Father shouts, fed up, just as the announcer on the TV also turns hysterical. He grabs Rei’s arm, turning towards Shouto with a fierce look in his eyes. “You will follow me if you know what’s good for you.”_

_Father marches off towards the bunker that hold Vault 1-A, the path something Shouto had long memorized by now, fifteen years old and still under Father’s thumb, Mother weeping silently by Father’s side, her quiet pleas falling into deaf ears._

_The guards salute him even as they shift uncomfortably at their arrival. They know who they are of course. The Vault Overseer, Father, Todoroki Enji. The Vault’s Head Scientist, Mother, Todoroki Rei. And him, the perfect soldier, the one who was supposed to be sent to the front lines._

_But just as the elevator towards the Vault arrives to the surface, an explosion rocks to the south, and a mushroom cloud rises above Musutafu’s skyline, its shockwaves visibly flattening the city skyline closer and closer towards them._

_“Shit,” Father curses, his grip on Mother going slack for a second._

_Mother takes the chance to grab his hand and pull him towards the elevator. “Take it down!” she screams at the operator who panics and presses the button even as they’re still far away. The shockwaves are almost upon them now and Mother she—_

_Shouto is pushed towards the open hole where the elevator is descending rapidly. The last thing he sees before his head gets knocked into the wall is Mother getting swept away by the shockwaves from the bomb that devastated Musutafu._

-

-

_“That’s…” Natsuo trails off, “That’s the best I can do. Sorry Shou.”_

_Shouto looks at his reflection, at the scar spanning from his forehead over to the bottom of his left eye where he had taken a bad hit when Mother pushed him down the elevator. That had been five years ago, Natsuo had done all he can to repair the ruined tissue but the evidence of what Mother has done will remain on his skin now._

_Natsuo lays a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Hey,” he asks softly, “You okay?”_

_“I’m supposed to be out there,” he seethes, “I’m supposed to be fighting this war. To end it. How can I do that here?!”_

_“I guess, that’s something only time will be able to tell, yeah?”_

_Shouto turns Natsuo, eyes brimming with tears unshed for the last five years. “Natsu. What do I do now?”_

_His brother sighs. “Now. You go to sleep. We don’t have much resources to last both of us.” Natsuo ruffles his hair and gives him a reassuring grin. “Hey, dontcha worry yeah? Big brother will watch over you, Touya, and Yumi, alright?”_

_As Natsuo lowers the door to the cryogenic pod, Shouto tries to speak one last time, “Promise you’ll wake me up if anything happens?”_

_“I promise. Good night, Shouto.”_

-

-

-

“The next memory… It’s deeper, I’ll try to access it.”

“Wait… Wait! Stop it old hag, he’s in pain!”

“Don’t call me old ha—no. There’s another memory, he latched on to it.”

“What—”

-

-

-

_When Shouto opens his eyes, his vision is blurry. There’s something wet dripping down from his forehead to his chin. Blood, from the metallic taste of it on his lips. Something… someone is dragging him down a long hallway, the sounds of wiring short-circuiting, sparking, too close to his ear._

_The sounds become closer—_

_“Where is he? How did he breach the Vault defenses?!”_

_Urgent beeping. “Trespasser, used, master, overrride, using, authorized, profile.”_

_“Authorized profile?! Who?!”_

_“Affir, mative, trespasser, used, authorized, profile, Todoroki, Touya.”_

_The shuffling stops. A shocked “Impossible,” is murmured amidst the explosions that rock the metal corridors. “Show me!” the voice comes back, urgent and frantic._

_Shouto tilts his head, lets it loll to the side. He has one arm braced across the shoulders of what looks like a white haired robot whose attention is fully captured by the Protectron on his other side._

_“Showing, visual, of, Overseer, office,” the Proctectron beeps, projecting a screen onto the metal wall. The screen shows a black-haired man, staples glinting golden in the alarm lights, long black trenchcoat swaying from the force of the explosions._

_“Come out, come out, little brothers!” the tinny voice from the projection roars. He turns his head, right where the camera is in the Overseers office and he comes closer. Blue eyes come into focus, something that should be familiar yet not. “I’ll find you yet, perfect little Shouto,” he grins and the feed cuts out._

_“Security, camera, offline.”_

_“Shit,” the robot carrying him curses empathically, “What did they do to him?” The shuffling starts again. “I have to… I have to keep Shouto away from him.”_

_The movement wakes up some deep seated pain within him flashing up and down his spine and he passes out again._

_The memory doesn’t stop. Instead it continues to when he opens his eyes again. The white haired robot—_ synth _—his mind corrects,_ Natsuo _, his memory tells him, is outside the pod._

_“Wha… What’s happening…”_

_“I’m putting you back to sleep Shou,” Natsuo replies, his voice squeaking and dipping from the dysfunction of his machinery, “Just until it’s safe.”_

_“I… I don’t…”_

_“I’m sorry,” Natsuo tells him, and Shouto thinks that if his brother could cry then he might’ve done so, right then and there, “But one day, I know you’ll understand. Everything you’ll need is in the original chamber. Just… Just remember who you are.”_

_“But I don’t… I don’t…”_

_“Yes, you do,” Natsuo insists as the freezing gas starts to fill the pod, “Father always made you remember. Project Endeavor’s Number 4, the perfect soldier.”_

_And with that, the memory goes blank._

-

-

-

Shouto gasps wildly as he wakes up, arms flailing as he surfaces from the barrage of memories from two hundred years ago. Warm hands cup his face and his eyes search wildly, locking onto crimson ones.

“Shouto! Hey! Hey… Hey, it’s okay. It’s me. Do you… know who I am?”

His hands grab onto the wrists that hold him firmly in place. His voice comes out scratchy and hoarse but he manages to force the syllables out, “K-Kat… Kat-suki.”

Katsuki’s features melt down into relief, his voice small, only audible between the two of them, “Is it still you?”

“Yes,” Shouto assures him breathlessly, knocking his forehead into the blonde’s, “I know… why I know how to aim a gun now.” He chuckles haltingly, “But it’s still the me who wandered into a super mutant’s lair.”

“You piece of shit,” Katsuki smirks, but the words lack the harshness that they usually hold, “You’re so hopeless, what would you do without me?”

“Wander into, a deathclaw nest, probably,” Shouto grins back at him, catching his breath slowly now, “But you got me and I got you, right?”

This time, Katsuki pulls him in his arms, hold tight against his back. “Right, you dumb idiot.”

“That’s redundant, don’t you think—”

“Alright, alright, that’s enough you lovebirds,” Dr. Kayama interrupts. At the reminder that there are other people in the room, Katsuki pushes Shouto harshly away from him, his back landing with a thud on the cushioned chair of the Memory Lounger.

Dr. Kayama smiles wryly at Katsuki’s flushed face as he insists, “It’s not like that!” She turns towards Shouto who is as equally red, “Well then, now that you’ve got your memories back, any idea where you should go from here on?”

“I do,” Hawks interrupts from where he’s been quiet all this time, his tone serious unlike the previous times he’d ever open his mouth. He looks at Shouto and Katsuki and gives a small sigh. “That scarred man in your memories, I know him as Dabi.”

“You _know_ my brother?”

“Once upon a time, a handsome young man met a scarred beast yadda yadda yadda. Dabi’s a well known gun for hire, I’ve crossed paths with him here and there, more frequently when he finally got a stable employer. Even invited me to be his partner at some point,” Hawks smiles at himself, but there’s no actual mirth. “I refused.”

“What happened?”  
  


“Nothing,” the detective says with a shrug, “But I knew Dabi well enough to know who he works for.”

“And that would be?” Dr. Kayama asks with a raised eyebrow.

“Who else? The Institute.”

Shouto feels Katsuki tense beside him. “So they _are_ real,” the blonde mutters.

“As real as the sky above our heads, loverboy. But that’s some messy business I didn’t want to get involved in so we parted ways and I headed back to Naboo to set up shop there,” Hawks says.

“But Touya…” Shouto pauses, struggling to keep the pieces of his memory together to form a coherent picture, “Touya was just a teenager when he was placed in cryogenic stasis in the Vault.”

“Yeah, I don’t know about you kid, but I’m pretty sure Dabi’s older than me a couple years or so.”

“There is still an untouched memory of yours,” Dr. Kayama reminds him, “It was too… locked away for us to access it with the Memory Lounger, perhaps something you did yourself to protect your mind. But it might have the answers you’re looking for.”

“How will he get that memory then if the machine can’t help him?” Katsuki points out.

Dr. Kayama rolls her eyes, “Memories are not just a cerebral thing, it’s one, two, or all of your five senses working together to create a steady picture. What Shouto needs,” she nods at him, “Is something that will trigger that memory, is all.”

Shouto takes a deep sigh. “Then I know where we should go next.”

Katsuki raises an eyebrow at him, “And that is?”

“I guess it’s finally time I get to take you home, Katsuki,” Shouto smiles innocently, “We’re headed for Vault 1-A.”

**Author's Note:**

> I KNOW I ENDED IT THERE BUT. THAT'S LIKE HALF OF FO4 asldalsdjaklsd i have a feeling i'll be rewriting or finishing this in the coming month or so, since i already built the world around this au anyway but we'll see! so for now, that's how the fic ends!
> 
> again, merry christmas to my giftee and to everyone!! cheers for surviving 2020!!
> 
> [tumblr](https://minitala.tumblr.com/) | [my spankin' new writing twt](https://twitter.com/meowthtalksalot/) | [ccat](https://curiouscat.qa/gwiyomihoshi) | [fic masterlist](https://minitala.tumblr.com/fics)


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